Edmonton Triathlon Centre and Velodrome get final approval – construction begins in Spring 2022
Our sister publication Canadian Cycling Magazine is celebrating the new velodrome, but there is great news for Canadian triathletes, too, with the announcement that the Coronation Park Sport and Recreations Centre (CPSRC) will open in 2025. Edmonton city council approved the funding for the new centre and velodrome on Dec. 14.
The project has been in the works for almost a decade, as we reported in 2018 when the project first received funding approval, sparked by a 2012 community needs assessment and public consultation.
According to an overview of the project, Do North Events, the group responsible for the World Triathlon Events in Edmonton, will be involved in the design of the new facility which was always seen to be a potential triathlon training centre. Edmonton, Cancun, Mexico and Lausanne, Switzerland are the only cities that have hosted three world championship triathlon events.
The facility will sit in Coronation Park just north of Peter Hemingway Pool. It is a multi-purpose facility for community sport (courts, gymnasium, fitness, studios), as well as track cycling, athletics, swimming and triathlon. It will be connected to Peter Hemingway Pool and be a one-of-a-kind modern facility focused on supporting performance sport in the City. It is a key piece of the City’s long-term recreation master plan as “not another rink, field, pool or gym” to support a diversified sport system in the region.
The facility will boast a 250-metre international category 1 cycling track (Velodrome) that would be the only one in western Canada and one of only three in North America. The CPSRC will be able to host events from local level, provincial, national and world championships to major Games.
From its beginnings, the facility has been dubbed a potential triathlon centre. A place for the sport to establish programming roots in the community rather than be spread across the region. It would be the first of its kind outside Europe and a magnet for the sport in North America.
The project budget is $151 million. Construction will begin in the spring of 2022 with the centre opening early in 2025.
World Triathlon Series Edmonton (now Do North Events) and the Argyll Velodrome Association (governing body for track cycling in the region) have partnered with the City of Edmonton to provide sport expertise to the design and construction of the facility. Both organizations will also be key partners in the operations of the facility and sport delivery.
The new velodrome will be classified as a category 2 facility, which will mean it can host major championship events. (The Milton velodrome just outside of Toronto is also a class 2 facility.)
The folks at Do North Events are going to be busy over the next few years, having recently announced that they will be putting on the Professional Triathletes Organisation’s Canadian Open in July.
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